Checking in

> Minnow
>> Of course, it may not be JKR herself who has the problem; it might be the
> copy-editor or proof-reader who is inserting them where Rowling had very
> properly put a comma.... :-)
In my experience that would be uncharacteristic: publishers are more like to
underpunctuate than overpunctuate, inserting commas in place of semi-colons,
and removing existing commas altogether.
All this punctuation talk reminds me of a question I asked on another list
some time ago. Where does the US practice of following a colon with a
capital letter come from? Here in the UK it would be considered just plain
wrong, but it seems to be fairly widespread in the States, at least where
what follows the colon is an independent clause rather than a list. Is this
an American invention? Or is it something that used to be done here too, but
which died out, like faucet and fall?
Charlie
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